Not like that.
That’s all that’s left to say after the Dolphins loss on Sunday against the Bills.
The Dolphins lost to the Buffalo Bills on Sunday by a score of 56-26. Miami would have been able to secure a playoff appearance with a win, but after this loss, and several other scenarios not going in their favor, they have been eliminated from this season’s playoffs.
Before discussing this game, which will involve a significant amount of criticism given the score and general performance, it’s important to have some perspective. Again, the Dolphins are early in their rebuild. Going from 5-11, a season where many accused them of tanking, to 10-6, with one of the best defenses in all of football is a huge accomplishment.
The season may not have ended with a postseason appearance, but in many ways, the season was a success. On top of the impressive progression from the team, they also have an abundance of ammunition to continue building towards the future, including a 3rd overall pick courtesy of the Houston Texans.
It’s a shame that a team that outperformed expectations on so many occasions came out flat when they needed it most — but it’s important to remember that they exceeded those expectations nonetheless.
This may have been the worst performance of the season from the Dolphins as a whole. Considering they were slaughtered in the first two weeks, and against Denver, that’s hard to imagine — yet here we are.
The Bills rested some of their starters in the second half, including Josh Allen, Stefon Diggs and their running backs. Despite that the Bills still managed to score another 28 points without them. The Dolphins special teams unit gave up a punt return. The Dolphins offense failed to get anything going, with several dropped passes, a fumble and three interceptions. Star cornerback Tre’Davious White was a healthy scratch, as was Jerry Hughes and Mario Addison, yet the offense could not get anything going. It’s hard to say a single unit on this team played well in this game.
The main headline will be Tua Tagovailoa, but the collapse of the Dolphins defense was the most shocking part of this game. The Dolphins entered this game with a defensive unit that was regarded as one of the best in the league — yet the Bills had no trouble moving the ball against this team.
Josh Allen played only two quarters, but looked unstoppable during that period.
Aside from an incredible toe-tap interception on the sideline by Byron Jones, Allen diced up this defense. He would finish the game with 224 yards and three touchdowns.
Allen found Isaiah McKenzie twice, both times very open in coverage against Nik Needham. Needham would later give up a massive 56-yard touchdown to Gabriel Davis. It was an overall poor performance for Needham, who entered this game without surrounding a touchdown. He gave up three today.
On the second touchdown, Allen had all day to throw. Allen would finish this week with the third-highest time to throw in the NFL, per Next Gen Stats. The average separation from each of the Dolphins pass-rushers was over five yards. The league average is 4.52 yards, showing that the line was struggling to apply pressure to Allen.
Allen found John Brown for a 32-yard touchdown, completing the pass over Byron Jones. Brown now has five touchdowns against Miami in his last four games.
In the second half, Matt Barkley took over at quarterback and had some success. He connected with Gabriel Davis on the touchdown mentioned earlier, and also a 51-yard completion over Xavien Howard.
Howard would later intercept Barkley, reeling in his tenth interception of the season. Per ESPN’s Cameron Wolfe, Xavien Howard is the first player with double digit interceptions since Antonio Cromartie accomplished this feat in 2007. Howard’s likelihood of being selected as Defensive Player of the Year are extremely high, and frankly it would be shocking if he doesn’t receive the award when compared to Stephon Gilmore’s stats from last year.
Linebacker Andrew Van Ginkel had a sack and three tackles for a loss, wrapping up an overall impressive season from Van Ginkel on a high note. He had the only tackles for a loss for the Dolphins in this game.
Bills third-string running back Antonio Williams ran for 63 yards and had 2 touchdowns. He also had a big 20-yard reception.
The Bills finished the game with 455 total yards, 7.1 yards per play and a combined 377 yards passing from their quarterbacks.
The Dolphins special teams unit gave up a massive 84-yard punt return to McKenzie. He would finish the game with 181 total yards and three touchdowns.
The Dolphins offense did not play well either. What may get buried behind the huge loss, is that Tagovailoa had a career-high 361 yards passing. Unfortunately, it’s hard to say he played well. On top of that, he did not get help from his receivers.
The Dolphins would finish the day 3-for-14 on third downs, and at one point were 0-for-10.
Tagovailoa’s lone touchdown came on a 25-yard floater to Malcom Perry. It was Perry’s first career touchdown.
He was also able to stretch the field in the second half. Tagovailoa 4-for-8 for 104 yards and a touchdown on passes that traveled beyond 20 yards.
Tagovailoa had a career-high three interceptions in this game. He threw a pick-6 to Josh Norman, where DeVante Parker tripped, making it an easy pick for Norman. It’s hard to blame that play on Tagovailoa.
The other two appeared to be on him. Tagovailoa delivered a pass too high for Lynn Bowden, leading to Bowden tipping it into the air, then resulting in the interception. The last interception was just a horribly overthrown pass, where there really wasn’t a receiver who had a legitimate chance to make a play on the ball.
Tagovailoa did not get any help from his receivers. Isaiah Ford dropped three passes, including two big third down conversions. Mack Hollins caught one pass, which he fumbled. Mike Gesicki wasn’t able to come down with what would have been a huge play along the sideline. Parker dropped 2 or 3 passes, depending on what you consider catchable.
Now, DeVante Parker had a productive outing, coming down with 7 catches for 116 yards. In the third quarter, the Dolphins offense came out firing and Parker was a large reason for that, totaling 61 yards on the drive. He came down with a big 31-yard reception, his longest of the season. Reminder, Parker had seven catches of 40+ yards last season, yet his reception of 31 yards yesterday was his longest of the season.
Receiver Lynn Bowden found receiver Myles Gaskin for a huge 32-yard reception on a double-pass play.
Aside from Parker, no receiver had more than 57 yards receiving. The Bills had four receivers with over 60 yards.
The running game struggled, and the Dolphins were forced to abandon the run, seeing as how Tagovailoa threw the ball 58 times. Salvon Ahmed led the team in rushing yards with 29 yards, including a 16-yard touchdown rush. Myles Gaskin had 7 carries for 20 yards and was largely ineffective.
Overall, just a very demoralizing performance from this Dolphins team. It’s one that shouldn’t define their performance this season, but one that will definitely leave a sour taste in many fan’s mouths.
Takeaways
If I had to bet, I would bet Chan Gailey is gone this offseason. Whether you want to place the blame on Tua, or place the blame on the receivers, or the play-calling, it seems hard to ignore how inefficient the offense was. It seems hard to imagine the Dolphins wanting to roll Tagovailoa out there with the same offensive game plan as this season, where he looked largely uncomfortable, restricted and unproductive. In the unlikely scenario the Dolphins elect to look at another quarterback, it’s hard to imagine them pairing him with such a conservative style of offense.
The receiver unit needs a complete overhaul. DeVante Parker has shown flashes of being a true WR1, but after six years, it may be time to accept that flashes of a WR1 don’t equate to an actual WR1. Isaiah Ford had several drops. Mack Hollins had a fumble. Jakeem Grant has been disappointing for most of the season. Preston Williams has now missed 16 games in the last two seasons. Aside from maybe Lynn Bowden Jr., I don’t think there’s any person in this group that is off limits from a trade or release in this offseason. The Dolphins could hold onto Parker and Williams, but depending on them to be the team’s primary receivers doesn’t seem like a recipe for success.
The secondary was the Dolphins strongest unit, but still needs to be improved. Xavien Howard should win Defensive Player of the Year, but there were too many instances of big plays being given up by other players. Byron Jones got torched against Arizona and Las Vegas. Needham got exposed today. Eric Rowe was dominated by Vegas and Kansas City. Despite the success here, the Dolphins will likely need to explore some options at slot corner and safety in order for this unit to consistently be the defensive power that they were for most of the season.